Personally, I really liked this episode. It focuses on Tooya and Saya, and especially the two of them get a bit of development. It seems that they’re not siblings after all. Saya seems to be the daughter of a rich family, and through some circumstances that I didn’t manage to pick up got to live together. At the beginning of the episode, we see Tooya being down, since the family took her in again.
The problem is, though, that Saya collapsed afterwards. It’s not really an illness, but it seems that her spirit left her body. The culprit seems to be a ceremonial offering of rice and a bowl of water with a water lily on it (hanazake is what Tanda calls it). It combined with Saya’s worries to make her soul split from her body.
Tanda manages to get her back, though, with a bit of magic of his own. He’s able to leave his body as well through a ritual, and gets Saya back, bringing her and Tooya a bit closer together. I remember that tj han recently wrote an entry about how romance can only be done with pretty characters, but I think that Tooya is making a good start to change this.
Something interesting happened when Tooya and Saya’s story was resolved (which was too cute, by the way), though. Tanda either found himself unable to return, or he was so caught up in being a spirit that he didn’t want to return. I can imagine that that might turn out bad if attempted for too long. Not to mention that Tanda soon finds out that he can travel immense distances by just going through a wall. The animals he sees there are huge. I really wonder how this will be used in the future episodes. Luckily, he realizes this in time and contacts Chaggumu through the egg, and Barsa manages to save him because of this.
In any case, we’re now at episode 11, which means two episodes until episode 13, my predicted turning-point of this series. The next episode will probably be another quiet episode, like the past few have been, and something tells me that the plot will start moving with episode 13.]]>
Seirei no Moribito – 11
Hmm… some errors in your guesses, psgels…
– Saya’s not from a rich family… she was to be married to a rice wholesaler.
– Tanda wasn’t traversing great distances, he was looking at the spirit world of Nayugu, which is where the egg in Chagum’s body is from
“I really wonder how this will be used in the future episodes”
Spoiler: If the anime picks up the plot of the novel, then you’ll see that Barsa has to protect Chagum not from just human hunters, but a Nayugu predator as well.
Ah, yes. I read those points in your summary. The Nayugu predator also sounds quite interesting, I do wonder whether this anime will go back to the original plot of the novel, or that it’ll come with its own.
This episode reminds me of Mushishi.
Great review, but why do you keep calling her “Barsa” ? I’m pretty sure it’s “Balsa” that’s what it sounds like all the characters are saying, and that’s how the fansubs have it listed.